US Police's inventive bid to solve schoolgirl's cold case murder

In a fresh attempt to solve a 45-year-old cold case police in the US have used Twitter to give a voice to a young murder victim.

Linda Ann O'Keefe was abducted and strangled on June 6, 1973, while walking home from summer school in Newport Beach, California.

The 11-year-old was last seen speaking to a man driving a turquoise van before her tiny body was dumped in bushland, still wearing the homemade dress her mother had sewn her.

Now, almost half a century later, detectives have been able to process DNA evidence left at the scene, helping them make a new break in the case.

In the 48 hours since Friday, Newport Police detailed in an emotional string of posts the schoolgirl's final hours, from a fight she had with her mother who told her to walk home from school, to the discovery of her body by a man undertaking nature research.

Through the messages, Linda described herself as a quiet, shy, child. "My parents say I’m ‘sensitive’, which I think means that I’m an easy crier. It’s true".

The thread, which gained so much traction online it was converted into a Twitter moment, then detailed how the last known sighting of the schoolgirl was by a woman named Janine and her mother, Marguerite.